7 Ways to Detoxify Yourself and Live Longer

Detox: Comes from the word detoxify which is a verb meaning “to rid of poison or the effect of poison”. [1] Everyday in our lives, our bodies are constantly bombarded by a soup of chemicals and pollutants. Some of the poisons such as alcohol and sugar are willingly consumed because they produce a physical craving effect upon withdrawal. This is called addiction. Some poisons enter the body through the skin in micro concentrations from cosmetics and other so called “beauty” products. These poisonous pollutants can accumulate over time and if they aren’t eliminated can lead to the precipitation of ill health.

In order to keep well and stay well a precautionary and preventative approach is best if your intention is to live a long, healthy and happy life. For this reason, it is important to ensure your body is working efficiently so that it can clean and heal itself. This is where regular detoxification comes in. The following are 7 ways to detox everyday. These are simple but effective habits that can be incorporated into your life.

Get more air. Oxygen. Breathe deep. Any competitive swimmer will tell you about the importance of breathing to their performance. Learning a deep breathing practice such as Quantum Pause Breathing (QPB) helps to get more oxygen into the blood which reaches all the cells in the body allowing them to work more efficiently. This helps to eliminate toxins. Breathing well also helps to detox the body because some toxins are exhaled. Deep breathing also helps you relax and deal with stress.A deep breathing technique such as QPB can be applied in any situation from daily meditation to sitting in traffic or a board meeting.

Drink Quality Water: Without water a human can only last 3 to 5 days. Drinking more water increases cellular hydration. This allows cells to dispose of toxins more readily in the form of urine. However there is a big difference between clean and energised water and the water in a bottle of Coke. One way to detox is to make sure you are getting all the water that you need in a clean health form. That means cutting out and eliminating the soft drinks, sodas, hard drinks and alcohol and replacing them with a good quality source of water. The most important times to drink water are first thing in the morning when you wake up and during exercise. This helps to hydrate your cells, aids urination and also aids digestion of your first meal. Ideally you should aim for 2 or more litres of water per day but this depends on your weight, your level of activity and where you live. [2] The best rule of thumb is aim for clear or light straw coloured urine. If your urine is dark, drink more water. [3]

Add vitamin C. Vitamin C increases your glutathione. Glutathione is an antioxidant which helps your body detox. Lemons are great source of Vitamin C and half a lemon can be squeezed into your first glass of water each day as an easy way to ensure you get your vitamin C. Lemon water has many other benefits that you can read about here.

Daily Yoga, the 5 Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation or Tai Chi. Setting your alarm 30 minutes earlier to do yoga or the 5 Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation will help detox you because these kinds of exercises stretch your body increasing the flow of blood to the finer capillaries which increases the body’s ability to get rid of toxins. These exercises also increase the efficiency of your lymphatic system which is responsible for regulating and managing the fluid levels in your body. [4]

Stop poisoning yourself. Stop alcohol and cigarettes. You can’t detoxify if you keep putting toxins and poisons into your body. Alcohol is a poison and cigarette smoke contains thousands of chemicals. “Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing (carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins. These cigarette ingredients include nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, as well as formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT.” [5] You can get help to Quit Somking here.

Get physical. Exercise helps eliminate toxins through both perspiration and respiration processes.

Go natural. Stop using deodorants, eating processed foods and other dangerous or unknown chemicals. There are a variety of natural, chemical free solutions for many of our daily household and body products. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to detox is to eliminate these chemicals from your life and replace them with natural alternatives. Coconut oil for a moisturiser, apple cider vinegar for hair conditioner, vinegar and bicarbonate soda for cleaning, natural soap instead of body wash.

Check out my video 7 Ways to Detox.

Bonus way: Eat organically produced homegrown fruit and vegetables. Growing your own fruit and vegetables in a home garden has numerous benefits however it can also ensure you are consuming less toxins in the way of pesticide, herbicides and fungicides that are present in micro amounts in chemical based agricultural processes. Brocolli are one of the vegetables that uses a lot of chemicals in agricultural production. Growing your own is one way to ensure that there are no chemicals used in the production.

James’ Blue House Free Schools

About the project

Based on the collective knowledge storytelling paradigm of the indigenous ancestors, our community classes are by taught by volunteers where anyone can be both a teacher and a student and when we all work together we can collectively create a healthy future for all people, living things and the planet.